No to the repression of anarchists in Izhevsk!
russia / ukraine / belarus |
repression / prisoners |
appeal / petition
Thursday November 12, 2009 18:30 by Autonomous Action - Avtonomnoe Deistvie
In Izhevsk, officers of Centre of Counteraction Against Extremism (CPE,
new Russian political police, formed in January of 2009) are falsifying
a case against members of Autonomous Action. ... Call, write, send the attached appeal to
Administration of President of Udmurtian Republic and to government of
Udmurtia, and to Police department of Udmurtia with a demand to stop
persecution of anarchists!
No to the repression of anarchists in Izhevsk!
In Izhevsk, officers of the Centre of Counteraction Against Extremism (CPE,
a new Russian political police, formed in January of 2009) are falsifying
a case against members of Autonomous Action. According to Galina
Shutova, who is yet a witness in the case, the state wants to make her out to be a
terrorist: "An officer of the CPE, Artyom Ahmetzyanov, told me directly that
he is prepared to do anything to lock me up".
A case against the local activist is currently being filed according to charges under
statute 207 of the Russian criminal code ("terrorist hoax"). Currently
three persons, Galina Shutova, Anton Sobolev and Kirill Shumikhin are
witnesses in the case. Police officers claim that on 4th November at
around 12:20 they called to the police department of the Udmurtian Republic, and
claimed that a bomb had been placed at the Medical College by participators in an
ultra-right demonstration "Russian march", and that Galina had organised
the call. Apparently the police want to claim that this way anti-fascists
wanted to sabotage a major fascist event in the city. All of the
accused have an alibi: according to the version of the investigation, the hoax call
was made from a public telephone, which was close to the cafe "Turist"
(street of Communards 291), but at the moment of the phone call the three were
in the city center, more than two kilometers from the cafe. According
to activists, when the bomb hoax allegedly took place, they were arrested by
a group of police officers, illegally videotaped and searched by them.
Amongst the people who arrested and searched them, they recognized
Artyom Akhmetzyanov, who is an officer of the CPE.
On 6th November around 8 am, CPE officers Akhmetzyanov and Konstantin
Polcherednikov illegally arrested Kirill Shumikhin, in front of his
shocked mother and without providing any documents (of their own or an
warrant). Kirill was taken to the 2nd Department of Izhevsk Police,
where he was interrogated, verbally abused and threatened over the
following 9 hours. A warrant was passed to him post factum, during
interrogation.
On the morning of the same day, the parents of Galina Shutova woke up to hear
boots kicking their door. The police was about to break into the flat,
looking for Galina, who was not at home – she was visiting her friends
with Anton. A bit later, according to Galina, she was called by a
police officer, who refused to identify himself, just saying that he was
an investigator. The anonymous policeman demanded that Galina should come to an
interrogation, without pointing out the case and her legal status. When
Galina said that she would not come without a warrant, the anonymous
caller promised to send a warrant immediately. As Galina and Anton
were at a friends', she promised the anonymous caller she would meet him on
a street. Within 10 minutes Akhmetzyanov showed up, and Galina was given
a warrant where the number of the case and Galina's status were not
indicated. Only the name of a lieutenant Huzyakhmetov, who was to
interrogate Galina, was indicated.
Around 9 am, Galina and Anton were taken to the 2nd Department of Izhevsk
Police. They were told that they were being interrogated as witnesses in the
case of an alleged bomb hoax against the Medical college of Izhevsk, which
took place on the 4th of November.
Both were asked to do a lie detector test. Galina refused the test, and said
that she wanted to call human rights activists and find herself a
lawyer. For half an hour, CPE officials did not gave her a chance to
call – her mobile phone had already been taken away by police on the way to
the police station. According to Galina, she was targeted with psychological
pressure and abuse by CPE officer Artyom Akhmetzyanov and others. They
yelled at her "What are you afraid of if you did not call!" and
"Show us that you aren't lying!". They also accused the girl of
"interfering with their work". Unscrupulous CPE officers attempted to force
Galina to give testimony that she was "playing for time", she was
photographied and her fingerprints were taken without any documentation.
Galina was pressured to refuse a lawyer. As a result, she agreed to
take a lie detector test. The questions asked by CPE officers during the
test were unclear and incorrect, and also had no direct
relation with the case.
When Galina was given back her mobile phone, she called the Human Rights
Centre of Prikamsk. After half an hour, three human rights activists
arrived at the 2nd police department, but for several hours the police
refused to admit them to the building where the interrogation was going on.
Only after the arrival of lawyer Rustem Valliulin did the situation change a
bit, and officers started to behave a bit more correctly
towards Galina. Eventually she was questioned for 8 hours.
Another person arrested on the same morning – Anton Sobolev – was taken to
the department the same morning, and taken to another room. He was
illegally put into a cell, where there were already several criminals.
According to Anton, these arrestees started to accuse him of being gay and
threatened him with violence, then one of them "as a friend" gave him
"advice" to "confess everything", otherwise "he would have a really hard
time in prison". Moral pressure using other prisoners is
a traditional means used by police to intimidate witnesses to obtain the
necessary testimony. Then Anton was taken to do a lie detector test and
during his interrogation he was proposed "friendship and cooperation" by
CPE officers. Then they showed touching compassion by suggesting that Anton
change his girlfriend, as Galina was "leading him into bad ways".
Anton was shown a videotape, where the alleged bomb hoax was claimed to have taken
place. Anton said that there was a tall guy and a girl in the video,
the guy was much taller than Anton and the girl was waering a short
coat, whereas that day Galina was dressed in an overcoat. Anton says that
this videotape is direct evidence that none of the arrested had any
relation with the mythical phone call. Altogether Anton spent 9 hours
in the police station.
On 7th November, Galina was questioned at the 2nd Department from 11.30 am
to 1 pm in the presence of a lawyer, Rustem Valliulin. During the interrogation, she was
given the results of the lie detector test, according to which she was
"the organiser of the bomb hoax". According to Valliulin, that was a
provocation on the part of investigators: "The lie detector test is no
evidence nor testimony against my client, as the questions were so
formulated that they misled Galina from the beginning, they had
no connection with the case, and I believe that such evidence will not
be considered by the court."
Galina was shocked by the events: "You never expect it to
happen to you, that the police come after you to fabricate a case. I
am totally shocked by the insolence and rudeness of CPE officers
Artyom Akhmetzyanov, Konstantin Polcherednikov and others."
According to anti-fascists and participators in Autonomous Action, this
criminal case is just another episode in a campaign of repression against the
anti-fascists and anarchists of Izhevsk. Since the beginning of the year
2008, acts of repression have taken place continually: more than a hundred people
have been illegally arrested for various reasons, six fabricated
criminal cases have been opened, four of them were eventually closed
due to fact that the crimes had not taken place.
During the investigation of these cases CPE officers have continually used
illegal means. Witnesses and suspects have been physically and morally
abused. There have been a number of cases of police officers intimidating
activists. In the vast majority of these cases, the accusers have been Nazis
in some legal trouble, practically all of them have serious criminal cases
against them (attempted murder, hooliganism, grievous bodily harm,
vandalism and others) – thus cooperation with police against anarchist
and anti-fascist activists is for them a means to get out of trouble.
We ask everyone to show solidarity and not to allow the State's repressive
apparatus to spread fear, falsify criminal cases and torture and
beat up our comrades in their prisons. Publish information about the
situation in Izhevsk, call, write, send the attached appeal to the
Administration of the President of the Udmurtian Republic and the government of
Udmurtia, and to the Police department of Udmurtia with a demand to stop the
persecution of anarchists!
We – antifascists and participators in "Autonomous Action" demand the
closure of the CPE in Udmurtia, as CPE officers are openly fabricating
criminal cases; we demand expulsion from the police departments of Udmurtia those
officers who have participated in the torture and beating of activists from
Autonomous Action, that is to say Artyom Akhmetzyanov, Konstantin
Polcherednikov and others / - their photos are available here:
http://avtonom.org/index.php?nid=2825.
Autonomous Action of Izhevsk
Anti-fascists of Izhevsk
Please sign and send the petition below by fax, regular mail or e-mail,
demanding to halt repression against members of Autonomous Action.
For additional information, contact the Human Rights center of Prikamsk:
+7 3412 71-4457, (+7 950) 833-6276, E-mail: prikam-center@yandex.ru
Administration of the president and government of the Udmurtian Republic
Pushkinskaya street 214, 426007 Izhevsk Russia
Phone/Fax: (+7-3412) 497-200
E-mail: gov@udmnet.ru
Assistant of the president of the republic of Udmurtia
Nelli Nikolaevna Mamaeva
(+7-3412) 497-054
e-mail: s_president@gov.udmnet.ru
Minister for internal affairs of the Udmurtian republic
Valeri Vladimirovich Sosnovskiy
ul. Sovetskaya 17, 426000 Izhevsk Russia
(+7-3412) 934-190
Department of information and public relations at the police ministry of
internal affairs of the Udmurtian republic
ul. Sovetskaya 17, 426000 Izhevsk Russia
Chief of depatment Elvira Rinatovna
Phone: (+7-3412) 932-186,
Fax: (+7-3412) 934-243
press@mvd.udm.ru
Prosecutor's office of the Udmurtian republic
Prosecutor Sergey Valentinovich Panov
ul. Sivkova 194
426011 Izhevsk Russia
phone: (+7-3412) 94-85-00, Fax: (+7-3412) 78-25-76
e-mail: Prosecutor@udm.net
SKP – Administration of Investigations of Committee of Investigations
under prosecutor's office of the Russian Federation in the Udmurtian Republic
Chief of department Vladimir Anatolyevich Nikeshkin
ul. Sivkova 194, 426011 Izhevsk Russia
Phone (+7-3412)78-08-04 факс (+7-3412)78–56-33
e-mail: upravlenie@susk18.ru
Centre of counteraction Against Extremism
Chief Aleksey Olegovich Kozlov
Secretary : (+7-3412)948-764
Department of investigation of October region of Izhevsk
ul. Karl Marksa 393, 426000 Izhevsk
Chief Andrey Victorovich Chirkov
+7 3412 43–69–00
Appeal
At the beginning of November 2009, officers from the Centre of
Counteraction Against Extremism fabricated a criminal case against
participators in the anti-fascist movement in Izhevsk. A case against
local activists is currently filed according to charges under statute 207 of the
Russian criminal code ("terrorist hoax"). Currently three persons,
Galina Shutova, Anton Sobolev and Kirill Shumikhin are witnesses of the
case. Police officers claim that on the 4th of November around 12.20 pm they
called the police department of the Udmurtian Republic, claiming that a
bomb had been placed at the Medical College by participators in the Russian march, and
that Galina organised the call. All of the accused have an alibi:
according to the version of the investigation, the hoax was made from a public
telephone, which was close to the cafe "Turist" (street of Communards 291),
but at the moment of the phone call, all three were in the city center, more
than two kilometers from the cafe. According to activists, when the bomb
hoax allegedly took place, they were arrested by a group of police
officers, illegally videotaped and searched by them. Amongst the people,
who arrested and searched them, they recognized Artyom Akhmetzyanov, who
is an officer of the CPE.
According to anti-fascists and participators in Autonomous Action, this
criminal case is just another episode in the campaign of repression against
anti-fascists and anarchists in Izhevsk. Since the beginning of the year
2008, acts of repression have taken place continually: more than a hundred people
have been illegally arrested for various reasons, six fabricated
criminal cases have been opened, four of them were eventually closed
due to fact that the crimes had not taken place.
During the investigation of these cases CPE officers have continually used
illegal means. Witnesses and suspects have been physically and morally
abused. There have been a number of cases of police officers intimidating
activists. In the vast majority of these cases, the accusers have been Nazis
in some legal trouble, practically all of them have serious criminal cases
against them (attempted murder, hooliganism, grievous bodily harm,
vandalism and others) – thus cooperation with police against anarchist
and anti-fascist activists is for them a means to get out of trouble.
We demand:
- Stop the persecution of members of Autonomous Action and anti-fascist
activists in Izhevsk.
- Close the Centre of Counteraction Against Extremism in Udmurtia, which
is fulfilling the function of political police, and officers of which are
fabricating cases.
- Expel from the police departments of Udmurtia Artyom Akmetzyanov,
Konstantin Polcherednikov and others, connected with the torture and
beating of anti-fascists and activists from Autonomous Action.
Important! If you send this appeal in any form (fax, post or e-mail),
please inform the Anarchist Black Cross of Moscow by e-mail: Abc-msk AT
riseup.net We have no other means of knowing how many appeals have been
sent!
Russian original: http://avtonom.org/index.php?nid=2818
English translation by Autonomous Action (source: http://avtonom.org/index.php?nid=2825), revised by Anarkismo.net